Musings from the maniacal mind of Garyl Hester

This is the personal blog of Garyl Hester, a professional programmer for the past 30 years or so.

==Update

I am back home. I have defeated the nefarious plots of mine enemies and have returned to my native soil. So there.

I accepted a position with HP working pretty much with the same group of guys that I left back in 2000. I’m in the server division doing python – which is not optimal – but at least it’s not New York. Anthony Robbins tells a story about a guy with such a positive attitude that he says every day he wakes up above ground is a good day. Well, every day that I wake up not in New York is a good day.

Bloomberg has my thanks, but if anyone wants to go work there I suggest you contact me first because their compensation policies can be quite confusing. And, I would have never gone if I knew then what I know now. I offer the benefit of my experience to any who ask.

Peace.

== Update

I accepted a position with Bloomberg LP in August 2008, where I now work in New York City on high-performance financial applications and data service processes with Unix. The job is great – the city sucks.

I keep the following because it’s pretty good history. Cheers! – glh

=====

I was walked out of my last position on July 15, 2008 – offshoring had made my position “redundant.” What that means is that they found someone in Mumbai, India who can’t program, but works very cheap so it makes the bottom line look good.

I’ve essentially done all and been all in the computing industry. The problem is that I’ve never been part of anything great. A good friend of mine says he considers me to be one of the eight top programmers in the world. I don’t know where he gets his metrics from, but I think I have an excellent, poignant, no-nonsense approach to programming and program management. To wit:

Solving the problem is the ultimate goal.

Not politics, not bigotry (in terms of technology) – but the right tool selected for the right reasons to attack the problem at hand.

I am available for contracting jobs using any technology listed on my resume. I have a complete lab in my home, and currently have too much time (if you know what I mean.)

Sounds familiar. Perhaps you should get tangled up in a startup company that is creating something vs. providing life support to an industry that isn’t going anyplace new, interesting, exciting or for that matter…thought provoking. There are plenty that are out there that happen to pay well too.